The following U.S. patent applications contain related subject matter: Schumacher and Watson, Recording Selected Events of a User Interaction Sequence; IBM Docket No. AT9-99-176 and Schumacher and Watson, Storing and Manipulating Event Timing in an Applet Playback Module, AT9-99-177; and Schumacher and Watson, Recording and Playing Back User Interaction Event Sequences, AT9-99-178, all filed on the filing date of this application.
1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of computer software and more specifically to a system and method for recording user interface events.
2. History of Related Art
The Java programming language addresses an increasingly important consideration for computer software, namely, platform independence. Platform independence refers to the ability of software to be used on various hardware systems. With a platform independent language, for example, the same source code file can be used to generate object code for two different computer systems (via system specific compilers). Java addresses supports platform independence primarily through the creation of the Java Virtual Machine. The Java Virtual Machine is an abstract computer and its specification defines certain features every Java Virtual Machine must have. However, the specification for the Java Virtual Machine is flexible enabling it to be implemented on a wide variety of computers, devices, and operating systems. One of the main tasks performed by a Java Virtual Machine is to load class files and execute the bytecodes they contain.
One type of program executed by a Java Virtual Machine is an applet. An applet is a Java program that has a set of standard properties which are defined by the Applet class. This class was developed by Sun Microsystems and is included in the standard Java Software Development Kit (Java SDK). Applets inherit the drawing and event handling methods of the AWT Component class. (AWT stands for Abstract Windowing Toolkit; applets and applications use its classes to produce user interfaces). Drawing refers to anything related to representing an applet on-screenxe2x80x94drawing images, presenting user interface components such as buttons, or using graphics primitives. Event handling refers to detecting and processing user input such as mouse clicks and key presses, as well as more abstract events such as saving files and iconifying windows.
Although, a Java program that executes on one platform should execute in the same manner on any Java enabled platform, program or applet should be tested on all platforms. Since user actions in Java are handled by events and since it can sometimes take many hours or days for a problem to manifest itself, testing of the entire Java Virtual Machine on a platform can be very tedious. Therefore it is desirable to provide methods of automating the functional testing of the Java platform on various systems. However, current methods of automating testing of the Java platform on various systems requires a specialized execution environment as well as compilation of a separate program. The JavaStar product from Sun Microsystems, for example, compiles a code segment representative of a user interaction session into a Java script-like program that is executed to recreate the effects of the user interaction session. Products of this type typically consume a significant amount of memory, require training, and slow the testing process with time consuming complications. Therefore, there is a need for a simpler method of testing the Java platform that does not require recompilation of code, that does not require the applet or application to be exited before automation, and that uses fewer system resources.
The problems identified above are addressed in the present invention by method for recording events that result from user interaction with the various components of an applet, such as a Java applet. An applet event recorder is invoked and associated with an applet, preferably via a graphical user interface. One or more types of events are then selected for recording via a recording options section of the graphical user interface. An automator of the applet event recorder places automator listeners on each component of the applet. When a user interaction sequence with the applet occurs, events of the selected type are then detected by the automator listeners, which generate and store queued event objects in an automator queue. The automator then generates, presumably at a later time, constructed events from the queued events in the automator queue. The constructed events are then played back by posting them in the system queue thereby achieving the recording and playback of selected events.
The invention further contemplates the emulation of a sequence of events in which the storing and retrieval of queued event objects is facilitated through the use of an index to a component vector. When the applet event recorder is invoked and an applet is loaded and initialized, the automator generates a component vector that includes a reference to each component of applet. Events (or a selected portion thereof in embodiments including the ability to identify selected events for recording) are detected by the applet event recorder via automator listeners. The automator listener then generates queued event objects and stores the queued event objects in an automator queue. The generation of queued event objects in this embodiment of the invention includes the generation of a component index value that points to the component in the component vector that was responsible for generating the corresponding user interaction event. When it is later desirable to emulate the recorded portions of the original user interaction sequence, the automator generates constructed objects from the queued event objects. If the emulation of the original sequence occurs when the instance of applet present during the original user interaction sequence is no longer present, the component vector is generated for a second (or more) time. Each time the component vector is generated, the ordering of the components in the component vector is identical. In this manner, the component index field will always point to the correct component in the vector. The constructed objects are then played back to emulate the recorded portion of the original user interaction sequence by posting the constructed objects to system queue where they are dispatched to applet listeners.
The invention further contemplates the ability to record and manipulate delay information associated with the recorded portions of the original user interaction sequence. User interaction events, including timing information associated with each event, are detected by the applet event recorder via automator listeners. The automator listeners then generate queued event objects including delay information computed from the timing information of each event where the delay information indicates the amount of time that elapsed between the posting of consecutive events during the original user interaction sequence. A timing mode is then selected from the mode section of a graphical user interface and an emulated sequence comprising a set of constructed objects produced by automator from the queued event objects is generated. The automator utilizes the delay information in queued event objects and the timing mode selected to produce an emulated sequence with a desired timing sequence.